Here is my complaint I filed with FTC, BBB, no attorney general, FCC, and many scam warning sites.
On my 12/12 Centurytel telephone bill I saw it was a bit higher than normal. Low and behold, on page 9, was ILD Teleservices billing $15.75 on behalf of United Voice Messaging, Inc. I called the 800 number on my phone bill for this company and spoke to a woman who refused to give her name. She said that even though my bill shows this charge was billed on Nov 9th at 1:14AM!!! I went to musicvixen.com on Nov 1st at 1:14AM. She said my child (even had her first and last name) lied about her age and said she was born in 1984 and that their web site does not allow people under 18 to sign up. At first I was mad and was going to ground my child! This woman offered to remove charges and gave me a conformation code. She even knew my name and maiden name which my child NEVER gave out. She stated the amount will be credited to my phone bill in 3 billing cycles and my account was closed. I said, "You don't have to refund anything because I am reporting this to my phone company as a closed account and will not be paying this." She said that was fine and THEN tried to get me to sign up for voice mail!!! I said no way and hung up.
I then spoke to my child about this. We went to musicvixen.com and clicked on "register" because my child claimed she never signed up for this; she just wanted the free music. This place asked for an email. I put in a fake one. After about 50 ads we have to "skip" over, it then took me to a place to enter my name, phone number, email, birth date (yes you can put in up to 1993!!!), cell phone, and address (both cell and address optional). We entered nothing and I asked my child if she gave my cell number to them. She said that the web site looked different and she signed up for the "free songs" before even got our cell phone (about 3 months ago). We tried to "sign up" under a different fake email [email protected] and the page looked different again. This whole thing was a big scam from the get-go and I warned my child not to sign up for ANYTHING before talking to me first.
We filed this complaint with the FTC, FCC, BBB, and Missouri Attorney Generals Office. We will call my telephone company tomorrow and get this issue resolved as well as seeing about getting a 3rd party billing block put on. We will watch our phone bill each month. I have not seen them on any other bills.
Damage Resulting = Don't fill out anything online that you do not 100% trust. Believe your kids when they say they did not sign up for voice mail. We will not pay the $15.75 and will know better next time to check ALL phone bills close. These companies charge (cram and sometimes slam) your phone bill with small charges that are easily overlooked for months. These are third party bills you do not have to pay but work with your phone company so late fees do not get added AND get a 3rd Party Billing Block put on if you can.
All a company needs is your name and phone number to "cram" your bill. This can be done by filling out forms online, calling 800 numbers that record "snips" of your voice to make it sound like you agreed to something, collect calls can do this, even pressing a button on an 800 call can get this scam going.
We will never sign up for anything online that is not from a company we trust. We will never call a 800 number we do not know and trust the company of, and we will monitor our kids online usage with passwords to keep them from unknowingly doing this to use again.
Free music from "hot" artists is a BIG deal to kids... They do not know better.
I called my phone company just now and they put a 3rd party block and a long distance carried block so no more cramming or possible slamming on my telephone from this or any other company again. The phone company put this on a 90 day dispute. BUT, if this company does not reverse charges in 90 days. I was told I would be responsible. I told the phone company I would not pay no matter what and I doubt my phone will be shut off for not paying $15.74 to a third party.
Christina
Columbia, Missouri
U.S.A.
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